Microsoft is testing SameSite cookies in Windows 10 browsers

Microsoft recently announced that the company has started
testing SameSite cookies in Windows 10 for web browsers. The
latest preview build released for Windows Insiders comes
with SameSite cookies support. The SameSite cookies
support for Windows 10 basically adds an additional layer of
security to the operating system.

Microsoft explains that SameSite cookies would protect users
against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks on
Windows 10. Microsoft is bringing this feature to both Edge
browser and Internet Explorer with the future updates.

The SameSite cookies is apparently the best way to protect
systems against cross-site timing and cross-site
information-leakage attacks.

“Historically, sites such as example.com that make
“cross-origin” requests to other domains such as microsoft.com
have generally caused the browser to send microsoft.com’s
cookies as part of the request,” Microsoft said in a blog post.

Interestingly, if you’re running an older version of Windows 10
operating system, Microsoft has got you covered as
well. Microsoft will be rolling out the feature to the
browsers soon and it will be backported to older versions of
Windows 10. Microsoft explains that SameSite cookies would work
on systems with Windows 10 Creators Update and newer.

“Normally, the user benefits by being able to reuse some state
(e.g., login state) across sites no matter from where that
request originated. Unfortunately, this can be abused, as in
CSRF attacks. Same-site cookies are a valuable addition to the
defense in depth against CSRF attacks,” the company explains.

The latest Windows 10 Insider preview build comes with an early
implementation of this new feature. Microsoft hasn’t yet
announced when the SameSite cookies would become available on
Windows 10 but it appears that it’ll be released only when it’s
ready.

In terms of market share numbers,
Google Chrome is still the leading choice, while
Microsoft’s Edge browser, struggles to improve the market
share.

Microsoft has been very committed to Windows 10’s Edge browser,
and after reorganizing its business, the Edge development
team is getting more engineers.

Microsoft Edge received several improvements with the launch of
Windows 10 April 2018 Update. Needless to say, the company
is not giving up on Edge, and the next big Windows 10 update is
also expected to improve the browser with new features.